Printing-press attachment



July 28, 1925. 1,547,364

. A. B. CHAMBERS PRINTING PRESS ATTACHMENT Filed Dec. 7. 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet l July 28, 1925. 1,547,364

A. B. CHAMBERS PRINTING PRESS ATTACHMEN '1 Filed Dec. 7. 192's 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 v15211070597; WW3, Chain/ 2729 Patented July 28, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANDREW B. CHAMBERS, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A SSIGNOR TO TRI-COLOR LETTER CORPORATION, OF CHICAGO ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

PRINTING-PRESS ATTACHMENT.

Application filed December 7, 1923. Serial No, 679,095.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW B. CHAMBERS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and use ful Improvements in Printing-Press Attachments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in attachment for printing presses and is particularly adapted though not necessarily limited in its use in connection with the type of press commonly known as a Gordon press, and one of the objects of the invention is to provide an improved and simple attachment by means of the use of which the press may be readily converted from a one color to a multi color press and may as readily be re-converted so as to print only a single color. 7 j

A further object is to provide an improved attachment of this character which may be readily adjusted or positioned so that the printing may be done simultaneously in various colors, and the respective colors arranged to print at predetermined points or within predetermined areas of the work.

To the attainment of these ends and the accomplishment of other new and useful objects as will appear, the invention consists in the features of novelty in substantially the construction, combination and arrangement of the several parts hereinafter more fully described and claimed and shown in the accompanying drawings illustrating this invention, and in which I Figure 1 is a top plan view of a portion of a press showing an improved attachment constructed in accordance with the principles of this invention applied thereto.

Figure 2 is a detail sectional view taken on line 2-2, Figure 1.

Figure 3is a longitudinal sectional view taken on line 3-3, Figure 1. I

Figure 4: is a detail sectional view taken on line 14, Figure 5. r I

Figure 5 is a detail top plan view of a portion of the attachment showing a modified form of the invention.

Figure 6 is an end elevation of the inking rollers of the press, showing a distributor roller attachment applied theretov Figure 7 is a view taken on line 77, Figure 6. 7

Referring more'particularly to the drawings the numeral 10 designates the inking plate of a Gordon printing press and which plate is adapted to be intermittently rotated in the usual manner. The numeral 11 designates the usual ink containing fountain, having the fountain roller 12 and the plate 13 adapted to be adjusted by means of screws 14 to control the supply of ink from the fountain to the roller 12. The inking rollers 15 are provided with the end rollers 16 adapted to travel upon the tracks or guides 17, as the rollers 15 travel over the work. The roller 12 is adapted to be intermittently rotated through the medium of a ratchet wheel 18 connected tothe roller and a pawl 19 connected to a rock shaft 20, the latter being adapted to be rocked during the operation of the press. Allof the above referred to parts are of the ordinary and well known construction and form no part of the present invention. 7 Extending across the plate 10'is a supplemental plate 21, which may be constructed of any material suitable to hold ink and may be of any desired'width according to the area of the plate 10 which it is desired to cover. This plate 21 is spaced slightly above the plate 10 and is removably secured in position in any desired or suitable manner such as by one end thereof engaging over a bar or rod 22, which latter is detachably secured in position in any suitable manner such as by having its ends 23 shaped to form hooks adapted to engage over pins orproscrew threaded and the ends of this bar or rod 26 are anchored to any fixed portion of the-press preferably by passing through the tracks or guides 17 and being secured against accidental removal by means of nuts or collars 27 engaging the ends of the rod. Nuts or collars 28 are provided on the rod 26 and between which nuts or collars the end of the plate 21 engages the rod.

l'Vith this construction it will be manifest that the plate 21 may be adjusted laterally and to any position or within any predetermined area of the plate 10 and may then be secured in position by adjusting the nuts or collars 25 and 28 against the respective edges of the plate.

A similar plate 29 of any suitable size and material may also be provided to extend across another portion of the plate 10 and 7 this plate 29 is secured in position in a manner similar to the plate 21, that is with one end of the plate 29 engaging the bar or rod 22 between nuts or collars 30 and with the other end of the plate 29 engaging over the 'bar 26 between nuts or collars 31.

If desired these plates 21 and 29 may be of a slightly flexible nature so that when the rollers 15 travel across the plate 10 they will also travel across the plates 21 and 29 and ifthe plates 2129 are of a flexible nature they will yield slightly so as to prevent a too vgreat distortion of the rollers 15 as they travel across the plate 10. The flexibility of the plates 21-29 will also cause them to assume their normal positions when the rollers 15 are traveling over the tracks or guides 17 and the face of the type, and there by prevent the ink on the plate 10 from being scraped off by the edges of the plates 2129 when the plate 10 is given its intermittent rotation in the ordinary manner. It being understood that although the plate 10 is given an intermittent rotary movement the plates 21-29 are held against shifting movement.

Theplates 2129 pass beneath the ink fountain roller 12 and do not interfere with the engagement of the roller 15 with the roller 12.

The ink fountain 11 extends across the plates 21, 10 and 29 and in order to deliver different colored inks to the plates 21, 10 and 29 from the fountain 11, the fountain is preferably divided by means of suitable di vision plates or elements 32, in a manner which is well known in this art. The division elements or partitions 32 are so arranged that the respective colored inks will be delivered only to the portion of the rollers 12 and 15 which are respectively moving over the respective plates 21, 10 and 29. Thus it will be seen that when the roller 15 contacts with the roller 12, the latter having a plurality of colored inks supplied to predetermined portions thereof, the inks from the roller 12 will be delivered to the roller 15 and as the rollers move forwardly and backwardly over the plates 21, 10 and 29 the inks on the portions of the rollers adjacent thereto will be delivered to these plates and the type or work in the press within the areas of the different inked portions of the roller 15 will be correspondingly inked.

In order to prevent the adjacent different colored inks from running together on the roller 12 as well as on the rollers 15, shields 33 may be provided. These shields may be constructed of any desired material and are removably and adjustably secured in position in any suitable manner so as to extend over the portions of the roller 12 which are adjacent the edges of the plates 21 and 29 so that when the roller 15 contacts with the roller 12 it will also contact with the shields 33 and as the portion of the area of the r l r 12 adjacent the division elements or partitions 32 in the ink fountain 11 which contacts with the plate 13 is covered by the shields 33, it will be manifest that no ink will be supplied to the roller 15 within the areas of-the shields 33. Therefore, there will be maintained a clearly defined division line between the different colors of inks supplied to the rollers 15.

Obviously when the plates 21 and 29 are adjusted laterally or lengthwise of the ink fountain 11 to change the different areas of the diflerent colored inks, the shields 33 will be correspondingly adjusted.

The ink supplied to the rollers 15 is dis tributed thereupon in the ordinary and usual manner by means of a rotatable and vibratory roller 34 which is connected with a suitable rod 35 journaled in suitable bearings 36 connected to heads 37, the latter being detachably connected to a pin or projection 38 carried by the bearing members 39 of the rollers 15. .The usualspring 410 being provided to operate upon the bearing 36 for holding the roller 34 against the rollers 35. This roller 31, as'is usual in this art, rotates forwardly and backwardly with the roller 15 and during this rotation the roller 3 1 travels lengthwise of the rod 35 and rollers 1 15 to distribute the ink on the rollers 15. The roller 34: may be of any desired length but is preferably of a length substantially equal to the width of the plate 21 and a supporting roller 36 may be connected with a rod 35 for supporting the rod.

If desired and in order to supply a different color ink to either of the plates 2129, from the color of ink held in the fountain 11 and in order to obviate the necessity of dividing the ink fountain in compartments, a supplemental ink fountain 37 may be provided. This fountain 37 is preferably of the same construction as the fountain 11 and is provided with a fountain roller 38 with which the roller 15 contacts. The fountain 37, however, is supported preferably above and in advance of the fountain 11 a sufiicient distance to permit the roller 15 to pass under the roller 38 but to contact therewith and in order to prevent the roller 15 from contacting with the roller 12 after the roller 15 has passed'under the roller 38, the shield 33 is adjusted so as to, cover the portion of the roller 12 which is above the plate 29. It will therefore be manifest that the ink which will be distributed, to the plate 29 will be delivered from the roller 38 to the roller 15. Obviously the roller is of a length substantially equal to the width of the plate 29 as is also the shield 33.

The fountain 37 may be adjustably mounted upon the fountain 11 so as to be positioned at any point throughout the length of the roller 12, in any desired or suitable manner preferably by being mounted upon a rod or bar 39, which latter is supported in any suitable manner preferably from the fountain 11. The fountain 37 being secured to the bar 39 in its adjusted positions by means of suitable fastening devices 40. Thus by loosening the fastening device 40 the fountain 37 may be moved lengthwise of the rod 39, after which the fastening devices 40 may be tightened to secure the fountain 37 in position.

The shields 33 may also be secured in position in any suitable manner preferably by deflecting the rear end thereof and hooking or engaging the same over a portion of he inking fountain or of the plate 13.

It will therefore be manifest that with this improved construction the plates 21 and 29 may be positioned toany desired point so as to produce any desired color of printing. It

will also be obvious that while in the present invention two supplemental plates 21 and 29 have been disclosed, any desired number of these plates may be provided according to the desired number of colors to be produced or a single supplemental plate may be employed by removing the othersupplemental late.

p It will also be manifest that with this improved invention it is possible to convert an ordinary one color printing press, preferably of the Gordon type, into a press for simultaneously printing a plurality of colors and with these improvements it is only necessary to run the work through the press once in order toproduce the desired number of colors, thereby obviating the laborious task of changing the colors and of adjusting the work so that it will accurately register when running the work through the press a second time to produce another color, as has heretofore been done.

Furthermore the simplicity of this invention and the ready manner in which the press can be converted and re-converted dispenses with considerable labor and materially reduces the cost of producing multi-color printing.

While the preferred form of the invention has been herein shown and described it is to be understood that various changes may be made in the details of construction and in the combination and arrangement of the several parts, within the scope of the claims,

without departing from the spirit of this invention.

' What is claimed as new is 1.v A printing press including'an intermittently shiftingfinking plate, a supplemental inking plate extending across a portion of I the first recited plate and in close proximity thereto, supporting bars on opposite sides of the first said plate and with which bars the respective ends of the supplemental plate have engagement and for adjustment theretently shifting inking plate, a supplemental inking plate extending across a portion of the first recited plate and in close proximity thereto, supporting bars on opposite sides of the first said plate and with which bars the respective ends of the supplemental plate having engagement for adjustment therealong, means for maintaining the supplemental plate against shifting movement, an inking roller movable over both of the plates, means for supplying different colored inks to the portions of the roller which travel over the respective plates, the last said means embodying an ink delivery roller with which the first recited roller contacts, a shield for maintaining portions of the rollers out of contact, and a vibrator roller cooperating with the portion of the first recited roller that moves over the said supplemental plate.

3. A printing press including an inking plate, a supplemental inking plate extending across a portion of the first recited plate and in close proximity thereto, supporting bars on opposite sides of the plate and with which bars the respective ends of the supplemental plate have detachable engagement, means for adjusting the ends of the supplemental plate along the respective bars, an inking roller movable over both of the plates, means for supplying ink to said roller, and a vibrator roller contacting with the portion of the first recited roller that travels over the said supplemental plate.

4. A printing press including an inking plate, a supplemental inking plate extending across a portion of the first said plate and in close proximity thereto, supporting bars extending transversely of the first said plate and on opposite sides thereof and with which bars the respective ends of the supplemental plate engage and from Which bars they are and a vibrator roller eontacting with the freely detachable, means co-operating With portion of the first recited roller that travels the respective bars for adjusting the ends of over the said supplemental plate. 10 the supplemental plate therealong and for In testimony whereof I have signed my 5 maintaining the latter in adjusted position, name to this specification, on this 5th day an inking roller movable over both of the of December, A. D. 1928. plates, means for supplying ink to the roller, ANDREWV B. CHAMBERS. 

